


Love In The Dark

by Dark_lordofall



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Canon? Who needs canon, F/F, Honestly what were you expecting, So much angst, slow burn madamspellman, spellman siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 20:37:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20913755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_lordofall/pseuds/Dark_lordofall
Summary: Set at the end of season two, Zelda is trying to get the twins and her life back. Along the way she stirs up a secret and a lot of old pain.This fic is a collab between @artofspellman and @lesbianlilith on twitter (come find us!). We'll put our names at the end of the chapter, if you want to know who's who.





	Love In The Dark

There was so much pain. It had been three months since Faustus had taken the twins and Zelda was no closer to finding them. She didn't even know if they were okay. She could almost convince herself that they would be fine, that even Faustus wouldn't hurt his own children, and then she would go to the school and see what remained of the coven, constant proof of just what Faustus was capable of. They had lost seventeen people in the end. Three of them children at the academy. Eight women. Nine men. Zelda had never connected with many people, she wasn't sociable at the best of times and over the last few years, she'd just found it far too easy to come up with excuses to avoid having to deal with people. She regretted that now.

Zelda had taken over running the academy in the last three months and grief was a physical presence in the classroom, in the empty chairs, the hollow eyes of students who'd lost parents and friends. She had tried to brighten things up, Hilda had brought new books and paintings and they had taken down the heavy curtains, stripped the wallpaper, removed the statues. The building was barely recognisable anymore, but none of the changes had made a real difference to the atmosphere inside. The pain was sewn in to the foundations.

Zelda crossed the atrium and walked into her office, closing the door behind her. She hadn't taken over Faustus' office, she didn't want to be seen as a direct replacement of him in a time they were striving for change. She was in what had been the staff room although much changed, with sofas and a fireplace it was set up more like a living room than an office. It was perhaps less formal than Zelda would have wanted herself but Hilda had been fierce that the students needed to feel welcomed and although Zelda didn't like to admit it, her sister was usually right about such things.

Almost as soon as the door was closed, it opened again, and Zelda sighed when she saw Elspeth in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, I should have knocked." Elsbeth half stepped back, a hand still on the door.

"No, I'm sorry, dear." Zelda made herself smile and gestured for the girl to come in. "It isn't you. I was just hoping it would be Prudence. She's late."

Elspeth came in, and closed the door. Zelda had known her mother very well and had seen a little of Elspeth when she was growing up. The girl in front of her was a shadow of her former self, the bravery and stubbornness that had lead her to defy the witch hunters and attempt to escape from Faustus was gone. Her mother was one of the witches who had died. Still, the combination of saving the majority of the coven and protecting Elspeth herself from Faustus' wrath had endeared Zelda to Elspeth who seemed to have great faith in Zelda's ability to fix any problem.

"I think I saw Adriel. He was outside the academy, looking through a window. Or- I don't know, I only saw him for a moment." She bit her lip. "Maybe he wasn't there."

They both knew what went unspoken in those words. Elspeth had had to be moved to another room because she had woken up from nightmares screaming. She dreamed of the cell she had been locked in, of her mother dying, of her mother locked in the cell. In every dream, Faustus was there. Adriel and four other boys had slipped away to join Faustus and had since begun appearing in Elspeth's nightmares. Zelda's too if she was being honest.

Still.... If there was even a chance that Adriel was near by he could be spying and reporting back.

"I'll reinforce the protection charms and look for him myself." Zelda tried to look comforting, something she had gotten a lot of practice at recently. 

Elspeth gave a small, sad smile and left. Zelda checked her watch but it was no good, Prudence was already late and if Adriel really had been close, she had to look for him now or risk him getting away. She sighed again, frustrated, she'd been hoping for news about Prudence's search for the twins, but she left the office and walked out through a back door to the academy. 

There was some kind of row going on outside, two figures arguing in loud voices. It was indeed Adriel, arguing with a girl, Zelda couldn't identify from this distance. The girl grabbed for the Adriel and missed. The boy started running away from her towards the forest. The girl chased and far behind, so did Zelda.

The two kids disappeared into the trees and Zelda knew she couldn't catch them but she couldn't stop either. Autumn leaves had fallen, crunching loudly underfoot. Zelda's mind raced as she ran. If Adriel was here did that mean Faustus was close? Did he have other spies? What could he possibly want at the academy?

Her thoughts were distracted by the sounds of a fight ahead of her, closer than she expected. Adriel must have stopped and challenged the girl. He swore, once, and then footsteps resumed running.

Zelda didn't see the shape on the ground at first, she almost stepped on it until she realised it was a person. The girl who had been chasing Adriel. Zelda didn't know her, which was surprising, because Zelda knew all the students at the academy now. The girl was unconscious, her face pale and blood seeping from a small cut on her head. When Zelda bent to check on her she saw the rock, the size of a fist, also with blood on it, discarded nearby. The girl was breathing. Zelda tilted her face to look at her directly and was stuck by a sense of familiarity. She couldn't put a name to this girl but she was convinced she had seen her somewhere before.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was written by Caroline. Basically me and Beka came up with this over some very long twitter threads. If you need a happy ending with your angst, I have no idea if you'll get one, probably depends who writes the last chapter, Beka isn't as sadistic as me :)  
Enjoy!


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